Be All My Sins Remembered
by SteveElOtaku
Summary: Post MGR:R, so there WILL be spoilers. Raiden's sleep is increasingly troubled and Rose worries about him. As the two experience nightmares, Raiden begins to question himself and his actions. Just who's in control? Raiden...or Jack the Ripper? Rated M to be safe. One-shot.


Be All My Sins Remembered

_Short fic taking place after Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. _

Raiden lay in bed beside Rose, the synthetic flesh coating covering the hard, black mess of metal and wires that was his cyborg body. He twitched, writhed, as the nightmares consumed him. He saw his sword tearing George in half. He saw Rose and Little John dead at his feet. He saw armies of Metal Gears, a revived Desperado...and Snake looking despondently at him. His strong nails began tearing at his chest.

Rose sighed as she turned in bed, noise filling her ears. What sounded like ripping...scraping. Her own nightmares were starting. She shivered in horror as she felt a gun pressed to her back, syllables repeated endlessly " La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo"...The Patriots. Another horrible dream followed: Raiden dead at her feet, eaten alive by his body's circuits. Then one even more terrible...where Jack came out to "play" with her... Finally, a horrifying tearing woke her...Raiden's skin was torn half off, his skeletal jaw exposed and his chest whirring and scraping beneath so much synthetic pink.

"Raiden! Jack! Please...wake up!"

Raiden awoke with a scream, his eyes glowing red...before fading into their calm, steely blue. He looked at the shredded remains of his chest and face. Rose was still there. Thank God. She ran her fingers down his obsidian chest, the metal hard but still feeling good under her touch.

"Jack...honey...what's wrong? Please..."

Raiden sighed, his eyes stung with emotion, and he tried to speak, but only whirring electronics were heard.

He finally spoke up, after about a minute's silence.

"Rose...I..."

She pressed her lips against his one lip, the titanium teeth feeling cold but still reassuring as she kissed him.

"You haven't been the same since Pakistan, love..."

"That's the kicker, isn't it? I saved a bunch of kids, I saved the president...but at the end of the day I still had blood on my hands...let the multitudinous seas incarnadine...I can't wash it off, Rose."

Raiden's grasp of Macbeth was a little less subtle than most.

She kissed his hand. "Out, out damn spot."

Rose purred in his ear a bit, but it did nothing for Raiden.

'What was it you said before, love? "One sword keeps another in its sheath?""

The cyborg shifted his weight.

"Yeah...but Jack came back...I started ripping again. How long before I kill the good guys, huh?!"

Rose swallowed. Jack the Ripper. In truth, she was afraid of that part of her husband...but not to the point where she'd leave him. Because, Rose knew, her husband, her Jack, her love...was a damaged child, a hero with hurting scars that needed her attention most of all. She had to be there. The Patriots had hurt them both in the name of America. But she knew that Raiden was a truer patriot than any of the hateful AIs. He cried. He felt remorse for the things he did. He didn't believe freedom should come on top of a mountain of corpses. So all she could do for him...was hold him.

It helped.

Raiden's servos and circuits stopped whining. Any traces of the Ripper faded. They embraced, softly, passionately kissing.

"You were always my hero, Jack."

"I'm not a hero...I'm just a-"

"Stop. Snake REALLY rubbed off on you, didn't he?"

"Well..."

She smiled.

"Jack, Snake was saying we shouldn't glorify war or death. But...he was a hero, just like you. He didn't believe he was, he never said anything, he didn't want to be up there in lights and that's just why he was such a great hero. He just wanted to live in a world where people acted on love, not hate."

Raiden sighed peacefully.

"You know, Rose...keep that up and he'll start whining from the grave about how he needs a smoke."

Both laughed.

Raiden sighed.

"I guess...I just still feel guilt, you know?"

"Surest sign you're still human, honey. 'Be all my sins remembered' and that."

"_Hamlet_. I like that play."

"We saw it on one of our earlier dates, Jack. Oh, how I felt for Hamlet..."Break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.""

"That's when you were in with The Patriots, huh?"

"Yes...I longed to tell you, to break free..."

"Rose, don't blame yourself. The Patriots had everybody."

Rose smiled faintly.

"The big question is, what are we gonna do about that?"

She pointed at his torn open chest.

"You've got a big meeting tomorrow with that new charity firm." She teased.

Raiden sighed.

"Yes...we can't have the suits panicking that they're doing business with The Terminator."

Rose trembled a bit...

"Jack...uh...honey?"

"Yes, love?"

This was going to be tough.

"We need to talk about Jack...Jack."

This was it. Raiden sighed. The bombshell. It hit him worse than a combo plate of Rose's meatloaf surprise and Sunny's eggs.

"Jack...the Ripper..." Raiden managed.

Rose nodded, heat rising in her cheeks.

"How much has Jack...come out to play lately?"

Raiden grimaced as best he could with no lower face.

"He came out a lot in Denver...in Pakistan..."

"You were really tense...kids' lives were at stake..."

"I killed scared, terrified people. People with FAMILIES."

"You can't blame yourself for every death. Just hope and pray for a world where killing won't be necessary."

"I do...every day, Rose. I'm just glad George and Sunny are out of it...and John, too."

"Snake would be proud, Raiden."

"He-he would?"

"Yes. Because you took a stand and fought for what was right, Raiden. At great personal cost."

"Yeah...I know..."

"Don't mope, Raiden, it was hard enough to get you to stop moping after Big Shell and convince you that yes, I really DID exist and wasn't another Patriots trick."

"Well, hey. I was confused. I mean, Colonel turning out to be GW was the biggest shock I'd had since...well, Solidus."

"I hope I cleared that up."

Raiden blushed.

"The night after Big Shell...nothing virtual could emulate that..."

He paused a minute before sighing.

"Does it ever bother you that I'm all artificial from the upper jaw down?"

Raiden looked down himself.

Rose put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Trust me...those servos come in handy at night...You've got another high-frequency blade and this one doesn't cut..."

He chuckled at the obvious innuendo.

"I do hope I'm more to you than that, Rose..."

"So serious! Live a little, Raiden!"

"A-alright."

"You're still the same dorky Jack I fell in love with. You aren't a cold-blooded killer. Not to me. Not to John."

Raiden sighed. Something was still bothering him.

"The Patriots...wanted you to act like you loved me, right?"

"But...I ended up falling for you, Jack. I really did. I guess...love really can bloom, even on a battlefield."

"Sounds like an Otacon line."

"Funny you should say that."

Rose took Jack in her arms again. He felt small to her, despite the metal's weight.

"We'll work through this, Jack." she said, smoothing his hair.

"I hope so..."

"Jack the Ripper may be part of you, but he isn't you. The Jack I know...is kind, sweet, selfless...and a total charmer."

Raiden blushed.

"Uh...thanks. But uh, my skin..."

Rose just smiled.

"We can have Doktor patch you up in the morning. I wouldn't worry."

A small voice came through the closed door.

"Mom? Dad? I think there's something in my closet...or at least, at my window."

Raiden looked at Rose.

"I can handle it, if you'd like."

"That's my Jack. That's my hero." she smiled.

Raiden got up, put a nightshirt on, and walked over to John, who was waiting at the door.

Sure enough, there was a storm outside. The lightning illuminated some junk in the closet.

"It's just lightning. But, hey...remember what I taught you."

John nodded.

"Kuwabara, kuwabara."

Raiden smiled, steel fingers caressing the boy's head.

"Good night, John."

"Good night, dad."

Maybe he was a hero...

Jack the Ripper, at that moment, seemed as inconsequential as the shadow of junk in a closet.

Yes. Junk was the right word.


End file.
